1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sausage link handling and packaging machine whereby predetermined quantities of sausage links are aligned in groups and transferred on a support element which is used to package the sausage links.
2. Description of Prior Art
A common method of packaging sausage links in the trade is to provide a long conveyor on which sausage links are deposited at one end and then picked up at several locations along the long conveyor by people so as to position predetermined quantities of sausage links into a box or on a tray which is to be wrapped by a plastic film material. A disadvantage of such method and apparatus is that it is labor-intensive, it is subject to human errors, and requires added sanitary precautions due to the handling of the foodstuff by the packaging people. Another disadvantage of these prior art devices is that many of the sausages become damaged by dumping them in a random fashion at a receiving end of the conveyor. These sausages usually consist of soft meat packaged within a transparent fragile film-like tube, with the ends of the tubes being only partly closed. Therefore, if the sausage link is squeezed during handling, the foodstuff can escape from the end of the tubes and this results in a messy package being formed or creates a messy and unsanitary conveying surface.